"GOD'S'OWN COUNTRY."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 51, 5 July 1913, Page 6

"GOD'S'OWN COUNTRY."

A LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM

Mr H. Dempsey, headmaster of the Central School, New Plymouth, has received the following letter from the headmaster of the Rookery Road School, Birmingham, under date Empire Day:—"Dear Sir, —To-day the staff and pupils of this school have presented to the school a fine flag of Now Zealand. This" has been 'crowned' with a wreath of fresh green English oak leaves and saluted with affectionate pride in honor of 'The Land of the Golden South.' A joyful part of our 'celebration' is the sending of this fraternal greeting to you. It comes from The Old Country— .'The Land of the Grey Mother of tho Northern Seas'—to tell you that we, the teachers and children of the largest public primary school in this city, pray that your Own Dear Land may be blessed with all the gifts which make a nation great and good. Vv'e pray, too that the time may never, come when the 'last, loneliest, loveliest' Daughter-State of the Empire will sever the bonds pf affection and. respect by which The Motherland holds that Daughter to Her. We rejoice This Day not in vain boastfulness, but in glad thankfulness that wo are People of 'The Blood'—members, of the same race as tho stalwart sons of Tho South. ' J

" 'New Zealand! God Bless Her.' "Yours fraternally, Leonard Challoner, Headmaster."